{"id":18543,"date":"2018-06-16T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T08:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=18543"},"modified":"2018-06-15T17:17:25","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T17:17:25","slug":"fantastic-four-marvel-masterworks-volume-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2018\/06\/16\/fantastic-four-marvel-masterworks-volume-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Four Marvel Masterworks volume 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Stan Lee<\/strong>, Archie Goodwin<\/strong>, John Buscema<\/strong>, John Romita<\/strong>, Jack Kirby<\/strong>, Joe Sinnott<\/strong>, & various (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-3046-8 (HB)<\/p>\n

Cautiously bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, Fantastic Four<\/strong> #1 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, George Klein & Christopher Rule) was crude: rough, passionate and uncontrolled excitement.<\/p>\n

Thrill-hungry kids pounced on it and the raw storytelling caught a wave of change starting to build in America. It and succeeding issues changed comicbooks forever.<\/p>\n

In eight short years FF<\/strong> meteorically grew into the unmissable core-title and most consistently groundbreaking series of Marvel’s ever-unfolding web of cosmic creation: relentlessly bombarding readers with a ceaseless salvo of new concepts and characters at a time when Kirby was in his conceptual prime and continually unfettering his vast imagination on plot after spectacular plot.<\/p>\n

Clearly inspired, Lee scripted some of the most memorable superhero sagas Marvel – or any publisher, for that matter – had or has ever seen.<\/p>\n

Both were on an unstoppable roll, at the height of their creative powers, and full of the confidence that only success brings, with The King particularly eager to see how far the genre and the medium could be pushed\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

However, nothing lasts forever and in 1971 the dream-team of Kirby & Lee was shockingly sundered. A reeling Marvel entered a new epoch of uncertain futures and bold new directions – which is rather ironic since it was the company’s reticence to give the artist creative freedom which led to Kirby’s jumping ship to National\/DC in the first place\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Four Those Who Came in Late:<\/em> As seen in that unforgettable premier issue, maverick scientist Reed Richards<\/em>, his fianc\u00c3\u00a9 Sue Storm<\/em>, their close friend Ben Grimm<\/em> – with Sue’s tag-along teenaged brother Johnny<\/em> – survived an ill-starred and clandestine private space-shot after Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding and mutated them all.<\/p>\n

Reed’s body became elastic, Sue gained the power to turn invisible and the kid could turn into living flame, but poor, tragic Ben horrifically devolved into a shambling, rocky freak\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

With this 11th<\/sup> collection of tales from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a new style is established. With Kirby gone, the staggeringly inventive imagination and rollercoaster of mind-bending High-Concept ideas gave way to far more traditional tales of characters in conflict, with soap-opera leanings and super-villain dominated Fights ‘n’ Tights dramas.<\/p>\n

This volume – available in hardback and digital formats – covers Fantastic Four<\/strong> #105-116 (December 1970 – November1971) and opens with a context-setting Introduction<\/em> from Jon B. Cooke, before issue #105 – illustrated by John Romita and inker John Verpoorten – began the low-key yet extremely effective suspense thriller ‘The Monster in the Streets!’<\/em><\/p>\n

When Johnny’s Inhuman girlfriend Crystal <\/em>is taken ill – preparatory to writing her out of the series completely – Reed’s examination reveals a potential method of curing the misshapen Thing of his Rocky curse.<\/p>\n

Tragically, as he is preparing Ben Grimm for the radical process, a mysterious energy-beast starts tearing up the city. By the time ‘The Monster’s Secret!’<\/em> is exposed in #106 the team strongman is almost dead and Crystal is gone\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 seemingly forever.<\/p>\n

Veteran inker Joe Sinnott returns in #107 in ‘And Now\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the Thing!’<\/em> as John Buscema assumes the illustrator’s reins over Kirby’s other masterpiece (he had already been drawing Thor<\/strong> for four months starting with #182).<\/p>\n

Here and now the unfortunate man-monster gains the power to become human at will. It seems the best of all possible outcomes but something isn’t quite right\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

However, before Reed can investigate an old foe pops up again. Sort of\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Fantastic Four<\/strong> #108 was something of a surprise to fans. ‘The Monstrous Mystery of the Nega-Man!’<\/em> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reintroduced\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a character never before seen. As covered extensively in the previous Masterworks collection, this was done by recycling large portions of a recently-rejected Kirby & Sinnott tale and adding new framing sequences illustrated by Buscema and Romita.<\/p>\n

The mysterious Janus<\/em> had tapped into the antimatter power of the Negative Zone<\/em> once before and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153now\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he resurfaced to steal more by crashing through the portal in Reed’s lab. Unfortunately, this attracts the attention of extinction-event predator Annihilus<\/em>, who had long sought entry into our life-rich universe\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Forced to follow the utterly mad scientist, Reed, Ben and Johnny once again face ‘Death in the Negative Zone!’<\/em> (Lee. Buscema& Sinnott) before FF<\/em> #110 sees – thanks to a little arcane assistance from sorceress\/babysitter Agatha Harkness<\/em> – Reed escape doom in the anti-cosmos only to realise that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cured\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ben has become a lethally sociopathic threat to all humanity in ‘One from Four Leaves Three!’<\/em><\/p>\n

Able to switch between human and monster forms, ‘The Thing\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Amok’<\/em> rampages through New York, with Mr. Fantastic and the Human Torch desperately trying to minimise the damage their deranged friend inflicts on the city even as increasingly marginalised Sue Richards is packed off to tend baby Franklin beside eldritch governess Harkness…<\/p>\n

With all of New York apparently against them, the embattled heroes are on the ropes when the Incredible Hulk<\/em> joins the fracas for #112’s ‘Battle of the Behemoths!’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As Sue finally and rebelliously returns, The Thing seems to have perished in the brutal battle that ensued when the monsters met, but once again Reed Richards saves – and cures – his best friend just as another menace materialises\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

‘The Power of\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 the Over-Mind!’<\/em> reveals another insidious cosmic menace, this presaged and prophesised by an ominous warning from omniscient alien voyeur The Watcher<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The psionic super-menace then further incites civilian antipathy towards the FF in ‘But Who Shall Stop the Over-Mind?’<\/em> (inked by Frank Giacoia) before manifesting and physically trouncing the team.<\/p>\n

With #115 Stan Lee surrendered the scripting role to Archie Goodwin, who revealed ‘The Secret of the Eternals’<\/em> (not the earthly proto-gods created by Kirby, but an ancient alien race) in a visually stunning sequence limned by Buscema & Sinnott which culminates in Reed being taken over by the Over-Mind and turning on his erstwhile comrades\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The graphic narrative concludes here with double-sized Fantastic Four<\/strong> #116, featuring ‘The Alien, the Ally, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Armageddon!’<\/em> as the defeated and embattled heroes, unable to access any superhero assistance, recruit deadly foe Doctor Doom<\/em> to lead them in final battle against the unbeatable Over-Mind.<\/p>\n

They are nonetheless crushed and only saved at the crucial moment by a most unexpected saviour in ‘Now Falls the Final Hour!’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Did I say concludes? Not quite; as there’s still room for the Romita\/Verpoorten cover to all-reprint Fantastic Four<\/strong> Annual <\/strong>#8; a stunning house ad; the rare misprinted pink-&-green cover for FF #110 and brace of Buscema original art covers to delight and enthral\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Although sacrificing spectacle and wonder for simple continuous conflict, the Fantastic Four<\/strong> remained at the heart of the Marvel Universe for years, offering furious Fights ‘n’ Tights thrills to delight and beguile. Why not check out how and why?
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1970, 1971, 2017 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stan Lee, Archie Goodwin, John Buscema, John Romita, Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, & various (Marvel) ISBN: 978-0-7851-3046-8 (HB) Cautiously bi-monthly and cover-dated November 1961, Fantastic Four #1 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, George Klein & Christopher Rule) was crude: rough, passionate and uncontrolled excitement. Thrill-hungry kids pounced on it and the raw storytelling caught … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Fantastic Four Marvel Masterworks volume 11”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,72,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantastic-four","category-marvel-masters-masterworks","category-marvel-superheroes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4P5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}